Photographer's Note

This is a historic picture of the great Bouddha statue in Bamyan, Hazaristan province. The Ektachrome slide was taken by my brother-in-law Eckhard Grassmann in 1977; he died in 1979. The angle of the picture is quite unusual, a view from head to toe.

As the statue had been directly carved out of the sandstone (during the 5th or 6th century AD) it will be impossible to repair it after its destruction in 2001. See Map:View for location.

Bouddhism was, together with christian Manichaeism and Zoroastrism brought to many countries of Central Asia including Afghanistan by the Soghdians. Soghdians were a people from todays Uzbekistan that organized the Silk Road trade for many centuries.